Netflix and Beyond

There is something pungently powerful about the actor Mads Mikkelsen’s countenance; silent or loquacious he kidnaps viewers’ attention, releasing its hold only after he has maneuvered his intent, frightening and satisfying simultaneously. Commencing in 1755 Denmark, Captain Ludvig Kahlen (Mikkelsen) receives grudgingly, permission to cultivate the sterile landscape of Jutland heath, in hopes of founding a settlement and a titled …

You do not have to have read Isabel Wilkerson’s 2020 “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents” to grasp the intensity and legitimacy of her nascent premise; it is not about color, it is “about dividing society into hereditary classes”: born a slave, progeny, slaves; born a Jew, destined for discrimination; born an untouchable (Dalit) children distinguished as polluters of society; …

Periodically you meet a film that from its onset is perfectly proportioned, a flawless scenario intelligently scripted and sublimely performed, pushing all the right buttons, earning magnificent respect and awesome admiration from the viewer.  “The Teachers Lounge” co-written and directed by IIker Catak garnishes the deserved medal for excellence. “Carla” (exceptional Leonie Benesch) an idealistic middle school teacher, has an …

A dreary, “drenching”, gem of a tiny film with gargantuan gleaning from director Mahalia Belo based on the book by Megan Hunter; Jodi Comer (“Killing Eve”) paradigmatic performance as “Woman” foraging a deluged milieu (London) howls with innovative discernment and penetration; she has a child while a watery world is encompassing her, swallowing her home, separating her from her husband …

Director Jonathan Glazer has accomplished the remarkable in his adaptation of Martin Amis’s novel of the same title (which bears little resemblance to Amis’s script).  The film resonates, pierces the psyche, transcends the scenario, adept performances, it sears redolently with the SOUND of the unimaginable; eyes shut, the soundtrack bleats with symphonic chords of horror, annihilation, ethnic elimination; Mica Levi’s …

Grief. Loss. Isolation. Unfathomable pain. Director Andrew Haigh and actor Andrew Scott with masterful precision scalp layer after layer of emotional, psychological trauma hidden in the depths of a damaged soul; a wound, festering for a lifetime, that must be excised, cleansed, allowed to scar. “Adam”, (Scott) a screenwriter, insulated in an empty high rise in London, spots another dweller …

Adam Driver depicts Enzo Ferrari (1898-1988) with a silent, somber steeliness as he navigates his failing automobile empire while balancing his grieving wife Laura (1900-78) played with a poignancy rarely seen in film by Penelope Cruz; (they lost a son, Dino (1932- 1956) to Duchenne muscular dystrophy) and his mistress Linda Lardi (shallow, insubstantial, insignificant performance by Shailene Woodley) and …

Director George Clooney’s “Boys in the Boat” radiates with pure chauvinistic joy; flows like a divine fairy tale, but is redolently true; a tale of underdogs, besting the odds; a triumph set in the heart of the depression, a rags vs riches scenario igniting a long-lost pride in our bruised but immaculate country. Based on the 2013 bestseller by Daniel …

A sly, sensationally supercilious, slap at conventional, stereotypical, platitudinous attitudes perceived as “black culture”; writer/director Cord Jefferson, with brilliant aplomb focuses on author “Thelonious “Monk” (homage to composer of “The Giants of Jazz” 1917-1982) Ellison” (referencing Ralph Ellison (1914-1994) writer of the iconic “The Invisible Man”). Here is a film concentrating on an exceptionally bright family of doctors and one …

Shockingly, I have never viewed any of the Factory franchise; entering “Wonka” as a neophyte was a fantastically refreshing experience, primarily due to the performance of Timothee Chalamet as the dreamy Willy Wonka and his stratospheric recipes for the penultimate chocolate awareness. Chalamet’s pristine innocence as the naïve but embracing entrepreneur is enchanting, singing and dancing with enough zip and …